Microprocessors: More hardware means less software: The trend is toward using ever-cheaper VLSI circuits in place of costly software ¿ but some would reverse the trend

Recent trends in the semiconductor industry indicate that very large-scale integration (VLSI) will offer microprocessor designers two conflicting approaches to designing future systems: (1) They can continue the mainstream trend, where VLSI is used to build increasingly complex microprocessors-and where greater complexity is exhibited as more hardware to do functions previously done by software alone; or (2) They can, as proposed by a small number of designers, take the opposite tack and build simpler processors, where more functions are done by software. These two conflicting approaches are discussed and their advantages and disadvantages are compared.